1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a newsletter, and more particularly, to a newsletter targeted to a particular game player and customized based on information related to the particular game player's character.
2. Description of Related Art
Internet-based role-playing games have become increasingly complex. In order to play the game effectively, game players must spent much time playing the game and researching the game to learn particular details of the game that may be deliberately obscure or not repeated frequently. Popular games such as EverQuest® and World of Warcraft™ have spawned Internet websites which support this research, offering database lookups of game facts (e.g., valuable game items or things to do) as well as online forums in which game players may contribute their experiences on how to best play the game. EverQuest® is a registered trademark of Sony Online Entertainment LLC. World of Warcraft™ is a trademark or registered trademark of Blizzard Entertainment, Inc.
As with much of the Internet, for many people there is too much information to sort through. In addition, a comprehensive search on the Internet requires a significant time investment, even with search engines. Furthermore, a less experienced gamer may not know for what terms to search.
Accordingly, there is a need for concentrated advice content about the game, delivered to players in a useful form, such as a magazine or a website. The problem with providing such advice via a magazine or a website is that game players have to sift through information unrelated to their character, their character's level, or their character's position or location. Such games may be very complex and therefore there may be an abundance of information to provide to game players, with much of the information not being useful to any particular game player at a particular time. In World of Warcraft™, for example, players start out the game at experience Level 1 and work their way to Level 70. Progressing through these levels can take several weeks of online playtime (and months of real time). At different levels of game play, the player is presented with different game challenges with experience gained in the first few levels being built upon to be used for higher level play. Players at Level 40 are not generally interested in advice to players at Level 5, while Level 5 players may not remember advice given them for Level 40 play by the time they achieve that level. Adding further complication (and to add to replayability for the game designers), role-playing games offer the ability to choose a character class (often from a fantasy genre, such as a Warrior or a Mage). Playing the game as one class can be a very different experience from that of another class. Beyond the complexity faced by players as they progress through a game, online games often add content throughout a game's lifetime in order keep player interest high.
To summarize, offering all of the available information known about game play leads to an encyclopedic database, requiring considerable research efforts on the part of the player, while offering occasional articles from scattered types of game play will have a very low hit rate on article relevance, and in some cases may be out of date.
Accordingly, there is a need for a focused presentation of information game players seek that is delivered to the game players without the game players having to conduct a search.